There exist a variety of devices which allow a user to control a software application run on an electronic device such as a game console or personal computer. The user may manipulate these controller devices to control an on-screen pointer, to control the behavior of a game figure, and so on. In addition, the software application may use the input through the controller device without any onscreen pointer. For example, a motion of a remote control may be detected or otherwise determined for simulation of an on-screen activity such as a sports activity. The most prevalent of such devices include keyboards, mouse devices, joy sticks, trackballs, voice recognition tools, hand-held remote controls and so on. Less common types of control devices include data gloves, inertial sensors, radio positioning mechanisms, and so on.
Known control devices may have various shortcomings. For instance, some control devices may not capture user input with sufficient degrees of freedom (DOF) to control certain applications. Other control devices may provide position information that is not sufficiently precise or reliable. Other control devices may be cumbersome to use. Other control devices may be prohibitively expensive. Known control devices may suffer from yet other shortcomings.
Among the variety of controller devices, motion-based (or motion-sensitive) remote controllers have gained significant commercial interests recently, especially in the gaming industry. There are two types of motion-based control techniques. The first type uses a motion detection device such as an accelerometer or gyroscopes which can inherently measure its own motion. The second type uses remote sensing techniques to determine the positions of a moving object (such as a hand-held controller used by a user) and then translate the change of the positions to knowledge of the motion of the moving object. The two types of motion-based control techniques may be combined. The present motion-based controllers using remote sensing techniques tend to have one or more shortcomings including complicated design, high cost for fabrication, lack of flexibility, bulky size, lack of accuracy, and too few degrees (dimensions) of position/orientation determination.
For at least one or more of the above-identified exemplary and non-limiting reasons, there is a need in the art for more satisfactory strategies for controlling an application.